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1. Biden’s Two Roadmaps: PA and Iran
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden kicked off his first official Middle East tour promoting a new Arab state within Israel’s current borders by assuring President Shimon Peres, "There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel in terms of Israel's security, our mutual security -- none at all.”
However, President Peres expressed concern over the lack of specific American action. "We have trust in President [Barack] Obama,” he said but asked that he "surround Iran with an envelope" to help stop the Iranian nuclear threat. "Nobody knows exactly what they are doing," Peres said.
Biden insisted, "Since our administration came to power, I would point out that Iran is more isolated -- internally, externally -- has fewer friends in the world.”
While the vice president played up the Iran angle for Israel, the main purpose of his trip is to advance the PA plan to become a country. "I think we are at a moment of real opportunity," Biden said at a meeting with President Peres on the day before his scheduled meeting with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Both Israel and the PA have agreed to indirect talks, similar to those mediated by the United States 16 years ago.
However, the PA leadership was divided even on the agreement for indirect talks, and there is almost universal pessimism over the prospects for President Obama’s new diplomatic initiative. “The mutual goal in the latest round of talks is to avoid being blamed for their failure,” TIME magazine’s Tony Karon wrote.
The Arab world has given U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell only four months to meet its demands for a new PA state that includes all of eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. PA officials said Monday they would agree to land swaps on condition that the size of the PA does not shrink.
Karon explained, “Setting conditions and deadlines is a way for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to offset the domestic political damage he suffers from participating in endless rounds of fruitless negotiations.
“Last Friday's confrontations between Israeli police and stone-throwing Palestinian youths in Jerusalem may be a portent that the latest round of peace talks could, in fact, be starting under the cloud of a looming Intifada.”
2. UN’s Weak Response to Muslim Slaughter of Christians
by Hillel Fendel
Hundreds of Christians were brutally slaughtered with axes and knives by a Muslim Nigerian mob on Sunday.
The Muslims attacked three small Christian villages in central Nigeria in an early-morning raid. They blocked off all exits, shot in the air, and then set upon the Christian residents of all ages as they tried to escape with axes, machetes and gunfire.
Reports of the number of dead range from nearly 400 to more than 500. Two months ago, violence between the sides claimed more than 300 people when rival youth gangs burned mosques, churches and businesses.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with over 150 million people, is about equally split between the mostly-Muslim north and the chiefly-Christian south. The center, however, is largely mixed, and native Christians vie with relatively-recent Muslim immigrant arrivals for control of fertile agricultural areas.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed sorrow Monday night at the slaughter. In a fairly restrained response, he told reporters that he is “very disturbed” at the situation, and “call[ed] upon all sides to act with maximum restraint.”
3. Record Numbers: 850 Hesder Students Now, 650 Later This Year
by Hillel Fendel
The semi-annual enlistment of combat soldiers in the IDF began this week with a record number of Hesder yeshiva soldiers. Soldiers in the Hesder arrangement combine approximately 18 months of combat service with 42 months of yeshiva study in a five-year program.
Some 850 Hesder students are enlisting in the IDF this month – the most ever, and 30 more than last year at this time. Among them, nearly three-quarters will serve in combat positions. Another 650 will enlist in the IDF later this year, for a total increase of 11 percent over last year.
Some 250 Hesder-niks will serve in the Golani, Givati and Kfir infantry brigades. Another 40 have enlisted in Field Intelligence, 90 in the Paratroopers, 40 in Combat Engineering, 180 in the armored and artillery corps, and 40 in Nachal.
In addition, 210 soldiers from Hesder yeshivot will enlist in non-combat units, such as the rabbinate, transport, intelligence, and the like.
For the first time, the yeshiva soldiers are not being drafted separately, but rather together with their units. In the Givati Brigade, for instance, there will be two 50-soldier platoons of Hesder students – one exclusively Hesder, and the other together with non-yeshiva soldiers.
Rabbi Chaim Druckman, Dean of Yeshivat Ohr Etzion near Ashkelon and a member of the Board of the Union of Hesder Yeshivot, arrived on Monday at the IDF Induction Center (known as the Bakum) in Tel HaShomer to bless the new soldiers and wish them good luck. “May G-d watch over your going and coming, go in peace and return in peace,” he told them.
Hesder Union Director Eitan Ozeri, also on hand at the Bakum, said, “The Hesder students enlist with great motivation to serve the State of Israel and defend its citizens’ security. The increase in the number of soldiers is proof that teaching the integration of Torah study with meaningful army service leads to heightened motivation and the ability to fulfill the IDF’s missions. The Hesder yeshivot will continue to stand at the forefront of security operations together with their comrades in arms.”
4. Israel Backs Down on UN Official’s Visit to Gaza
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Israel is backing down from its prohibition of senior United Nations and European Union officials from visiting Gaza. The Foreign Ministry announced Monday it will allow the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, to visit next week.
It also granted permission for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to travel to Gaza in several weeks, reversing its previous policy following the Operation Cast Lead counter terrorist war against Hamas last year.
"In response to the special requests ... Israel has decided to facilitate their entry [into Gaza] in order to allow them to get a first-hand impression of humanitarian activities taking place in that area," the Foreign Ministry said.
Ashton said that she wants to inspect first-hand where the EU’s "huge amount of aid” is going.
In December, Israel refused to allow a group of European legislators to enter the Gaza region, but Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin last month entered via Egypt and was the first European in his position to travel there since Operation Cast Lead. Several U.S. members of Congress, including Senator John Kelly, traveled to Gaza last year.
Hamas has claimed for three years that it faces a humanitarian crisis, but U.N. officials stated categorically to Israel earlier this week that no such situation exists today.
5. Yeshiva U. to Honor UK Chief Rabbi with 'Lamm Prize'
by Maayana Miskin
Yeshiva University has announced that it will honor UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks as the inaugural recipient of the Norman Lamm Prize. The prize pays homage to Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, who served as YU's president for 27 years.
“There can be no better way to inaugurate the Lamm Prize than to award it to Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who as a teacher, preacher and philosopher echoes and harmonizes the values of Dr. Lamm through his commitment to Torah U'maddah, and his belief in the ability of young people to build a future based on sacred nuance and steadfast principles,” said YU president Richard Joel.
Chief Rabbi Sacks has served in his position in United Kingdom for more than 18 years. He has written several books, is a visiting professor of theology at King's College London, has received the Jerusalem Prize for his contribution to Jewish life in the Diaspora, and was knighted by the Queen of England.
Rabbi Sacks' weekly Dvar Torah and audio on the Sabbath Torah reading is featured on INN's Judaism section every week. (for current essay, press here).
The prize will be bestowed upon Rabbi Sacks during an assembly next Tuesday, March 16, at Yeshiva University in New York City. Rabbi Sacks will address attendees at the award ceremony. He will remain at the university for several days, during which he plans to address high school students, hold a question and answer session, and spend the Sabbath on the campus.
Aside from creating the Lamm Prize, YU has decided to honor Rabbi Lamm by creating a physical testiment to his work. The Lamm Heritage has set up a mix of textual and visual displays and the Lamm Archives, through which visitors can access Rabbi Lamm's scholarly works, including audio and video footage of his lectures.
"Celebrating Dr. Norman Lamm is in many ways celebrating the best that is within us and the best that we want to be,” Joel explained.
6. Tractor Attacks Cars in Yesha, Two Suffer Light Wounds
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
An Arab farm tractor driver lightly wounded two Jewish motorists in Samaria Monday night in what apparently was an intentional attack. The driver plowed his tractor into one car and then knocked a second vehicle 50 feet into a ravine. Two motorists were lightly wounded and treated at a nearby hospital.
The Arab driver abandoned his tractor and fled to a nearby village, where IDF soldiers found and questioned him. The IDF said the incident was a traffic accident as a result of the tractor's traveling without lights, but eyewitness reports indicate that the Arab purposely struck the cars although the attack may not have been pre-meditated.
The incident occurred at the intersection near the Gilad Farm, where Arabs have attacked several times.
Truck driver Eliyahu Deri told Israel National News that he stopped his vehicle to block the tractor after he saw it trying to pass him recklessly. Deri explained that he feared that the Arab was going to run down cars ahead of him.
The tractor then swerved "suddenly and sharply to the left" an intentionally struck a car, according to the driver, Shai Keisler, who suffered back injuries. Other witnesses said that a second vehicle, driven by a woman, also was attacked by the tractor and was thrown into a deep ravine.
One IDF officer said the attack was part of a continuing escalation of attempts to kill Jews in Judea and Samaria, but police and the IDF are not treating the incident as a terrorist attack.
Earlier on Monday, two Arabs attacked an lightly wounded a young Jewish boy in Hevron, and other terrorists, armed with firebombs, attacked vehicles in Gilo, in southern Jerusalem. Rock-throwing attacks also were reported on an Israeli bus near Shechem and on Israeli cars near Yitzhar, in northern Samaria.
Last month, three Arabs driving a vehicle without license plates tried to run over soldiers near Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem.
7. Video: First Visit to the Rebuilt Hurva Synagogue
by Yoni Kempinski
The restoration and construction of the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem nears completion, with the dedication of the synagogue scheduled for next Monday, March 15. The Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter has completed one of the artistic aspects of the project - restoration of the synagogue's wall paintings. Arutz Sheva TV brings you in to the synagogue for a first visit to the restored Hurva.
A significant difficulty in the preservation and internal renewal of the Hurva Synagogue, which had been the center of life in ancient Jerusalem until Arabs destroyed it in 1948, was dealing with the many alterations that took place over the years the synagogue stood. The Holy Ark curtains, wall paintings, lamps, pulpits and other parts of the synagogue had all undergone various changes. leaving the restorers with the need to decide on which period of time the restoration should be based.
The wall paintings which adorned the synagogue walls during its existence between 1864 and 1948 were changed from time to time, and a brave decision needed to be made regarding which historical paintings would adorn the newly-constructed building. Finally, after a fascinating debate, the steering committee headed by Nissim Arazi, director of the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter, decided that based on the spirit of the past paintings, each of the synagogue walls would showcase a painting of one of several holy cities in the Land of Israel: Jerusalem (the Tower of David), Bethlehem (Rachel's Tomb), Tiberias (a view of the Lake of Galilee and the old settlement), and Hevron (Cave of the Patriarchs). Bethlehem was included although it is not one of the four holy traditional holy cities, which also notes Tzfat.
Restoration of the wall paintings entailed conducting a search for the names of the artisans who had decorated the synagogue in each period of time separately, an in-depth analysis of the painting methods and technologies of every period, examination of historical photographs in order to compare colors between black and white photos and those in color, analysis of the paintings' compositions and thorough comparison between the periods, and analysis of issues regarding wall paintings in synagogues in general and in the Hurva in particular.
Israel Antiquities Authority researcher and restoration architect, Faina Milstein, identified three main stages in the development of the paintings in the prayer hall with each one having undergone correction work of different elements: the first – from 1864 until the 1920s, the second – from the 20s to the early 40s of the 20th century, and the last – from 1940-41 until the synagogue's destruction in 1948.
In the first stage, the wall paintings were focused in the upper levels of the prayer hall and did not completely cover all the walls of the synagogue. In later periods, paintings were added that intensively covered the walls, decorated the wall’s sides and cornices, the walls between the arcs and the dome.
The current paintings were designed by Hurva architect Nahum Meltzer based on the research material and executed by the artist Yael Kilmenik. Meltzer chose to remain loyal to the original design which allowed for visual emphasis of the Holy Ark and the pulpit against the background of the smooth and light walls versus the color of the wood, while simultaneously adding secondary emphasis to the wall’s sides and dome when looking up.
For Kilmenik, who worked with and was trained by the French wall painting group Cite de la Creations and worked on all the large wall paintings in Jerusalem over the last several years, this project was extraordinary. "For the first time, I became part of the historical chain of a place", says Kilmenik. "Usually, we paint history; this time I am a part of history".
Kilmenik used acrylic paints suited for external walls. Some of the paintings were done directly on the walls while others were first painted on cloth in a studio and later hung in their ultimate location in the synagogue. Altogether, approximately 30 square meters of wall paintings were painted along with another 80 running meters of ornamentation. The largest of the paintings deals with a verse from Psalms 137, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept…we hanged up our harps."
The Hurva Synagogue will be dedicated on the eve of Rosh Chodesh (first day of the Hebrew month) Nissan, 5770 (the day construction of the Biblical Tabernacle was completed), in the presence of ministers, Members of Knesset, rabbis and other dignitaries.
The synagogue will host regular prayer services, visitors and tours. During the opening week, the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter will conduct free tours during the day and will show a sound and light presentation during evening hours.
